Conventionally, vehicle control devices are known which perform fixed speed travel control called cruise control or the like which maintains a vehicle speed set by a driver. Of this type of vehicle control device are known those that comprise; a trajectory estimation unit which estimates the trajectory of the vehicle based on the detection results of a yaw rate detection unit and a vehicle speed detection unit, a stopped trajectory estimation unit which, when a determination is made that the vehicle has transitioned to a stopped state, stores the estimated trajectory of the vehicle prior to stopping as the estimated trajectory of the vehicle, and a vehicle detection unit such as a stereo camera or millimeter wave radar which detects objects in a predetermined area in front of the vehicle in the traveling direction (for example, see Patent Document 1).
According to this vehicle control device, the trajectory estimation unit, even when the vehicle is stopped partway around a corner, can obtain an estimated trajectory that is close to the actual trajectory of the vehicle. Therefore when the vehicle starts moving from a stopped state partway around a corner, another vehicle on the travel trajectory estimated by the trajectory estimation unit can be accurately determined as a preceding vehicle, and acceleration and deceleration of the vehicle can be performed in a manner that accurately tracks the preceding vehicle.